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editorial

Into the Next Millennium

Welcome to the future. With this issue we move to professional
production of Overload and it's sister publication, C Vu. As ACCU
Journal Editor I hope to supervise the evolution of Overload from
the excellent C++ specialist publication that it has been to a
broad-based publication aimed at professionals who take their
software development seriously.

John Merrells and his team will continue to edit a solid core of
C++ based material for the foreseeable future. However other
material aimed at the professional will supplement this. This will
include material on other languages, articles on analysis and
design issues and reviews of software and books that are aimed at
the professional rather than student/enthusiast/hobbyist
programmer.

To help you distinguish what the core of Overload from the
extras added by other specialists (see the Journal Editor's report
in C Vu, yes please do go and read that even if you normally skip C
Vu) Overload will be divided into 'Classic Overload' and 'Derived'.
For reasons of technical presentation, some Derived items may be
inserts into the Classic Overload section (In general these will be
short items used to fill out a page.)

As always, the content of Overload will largely be determined by
what you, the readership, write. There is little point in sitting
back and saying 'someone ought to…' You are someone so try
to do something about it. Of course you may believe (possibly
correctly) that you lack the expertise but at the very least you
can write a specification for what you would like to see in a
future issue. One of the commonest questions I get asked by willing
newcomers is 'What should I write about?' My stock answer is
'Whatever you know about.' However it would be much easier if you
put fingers to keyboard and told us what you would like to read
about in sufficient detail so that someone else can respond.

I wish all, readers, contributors and critics a successful and
prosperous 3rd millennium.

Francis Glassborow

Journal Editor

Apologies

I have had numerous teething problems in getting this issue to
press. Learning a whole new range of skills takes a little time.
Together with problems of key production personel getting flu, and
EXE's production editor starting maternity leave just after we had
given up the unequal struggle to publish before Christmas I have
also had the unexpected problems of getting Quark Express to handle
footnotes, diagrams etc. Hopefully all these are one-off
problems.

If you think something could be done better or more elegantly
please drop me a line. While I will be seeking stability over the
next couple of issues I will be looking at design and presentation
issues after that.

Francis Glassborow

Production Editor

Correction

An article in Overload 34,
'Error Logging and Patterns', was incorrectly attributed to Steve
Cornish. This was actually the work of Allan Kelly, HYPERLINK
"mailto:allan.kelly@bigfoot.com" allan.kelly@bigfoot.com. My
sincerest apologies to both authors, who will shortly be receiving
the standard XXX. A pint in my local, if they're willing to travel
to San Jose to collect it.

New Reader

I'd like to welcome the addition of Phil Bass as an Overload
reader, and he introduces himself thus:

"I did a biochemistry degree, didn't like the subject and
defected to the computer industry when I left university in 1975.
Since then I've worked for several organisations, including two
software houses, and spent a few years as a freelance software
engineer. Most of the time I've been designing software for
industrial applications (process control, automated warehouses,
etc.), but I've also dabbled in systems analysis and database
design.

I was introduced to C and Unix around 1980 and instantly fell in
love with them. C++ caught my attention around 1991 and the benefit
of its object-oriented features were soon clear. Like most of us in
ACCU, I am still learning how to make the most of C++.

I'm happy to tackle most things, but I don't have much
experience of large projects, commercial applications (as opposed
to scientific and industrial) or "analysis". Think of me as a
software designer and C++ coder."